C#: Virtual Function invocation is even faster than a delegate invocation?

Question

It just happens to me about one code design question. Say, I have one "template" method that invokes some functions that may "alter". A intuitive design is to follow "Template Design Pattern". Define the altering functions to be "virtual" functions to be overridden in subclasses. Or, I can just use delegate functions without "virtual". The delegate functions is injected so that they can be customized too.

Originally, I thought the second "delegate" way would be faster than "virtual" way, but some coding snippet proves it is not correct.

In below code, the first DoSomething method follows "template pattern". It calls on the virtual method IsTokenChar. The second DoSomthing method doesn't depend on virtual function. Instead, it has a pass-in delegate. In my computer, the first DoSomthing is always faster than the second. The result is like 1645:1780.

"Virtual invocation" is dynamic binding and should be more time-costing than direct delegation invocation, right? but the result shows it is not.

Anybody can explain this?

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

class Foo
{
    public virtual bool IsTokenChar(string word)
    {
        return String.IsNullOrEmpty(word);
    }

    // this is a template method
    public int DoSomething(string word)
    {
        int trueCount = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < repeat; ++i)
        {
            if (IsTokenChar(word))
            {
                ++trueCount;
            }
        }
        return trueCount;
    }

    public int DoSomething(Predicate<string> predicator, string word)
    {
        int trueCount = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < repeat; ++i)
        {
            if (predicator(word))
            {
                ++trueCount;
            }
        }
        return trueCount;
    }

    private int repeat = 200000000;
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Foo f = new Foo();

        {
            Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
            f.DoSomething(null);
            sw.Stop();
            Console.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
        }

        {
            Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
            f.DoSomething(str => String.IsNullOrEmpty(str), null);
            sw.Stop();
            Console.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Think about what's required in each case:

Virtual call

• Check for nullity
• Navigate from object pointer to type pointer
• Look up method address in instruction table
• (Not sure - even Richter doesn't cover this) Go to base type if method isn't overridden? Recurse until we find the right method address. (I don't think so - see edit at bottom.)
• Push original object pointer onto stack ("this")
• Call method

Delegate call

• Check for nullity
• Navigate from object pointer to array of invocations (all delegates are potentially multicast)
• Loop over array, and for each invocation:
  • Fetch method address
  • Work out whether or not to pass the target as first argument
  • Push arguments onto stack (may have been done already - not sure)
  • Optionally (depending on whether the invocation is open or closed) push the invocation target onto the stack
  • Call method

There may be some optimisation so that there's no looping involved in the single-call case, but even so that will take a very quick check.

But basically there's just as much indirection involved with a delegate. Given the bit I'm unsure of in the virtual method call, it's possible that a call to an unoverridden virtual method in a massively deep type hierarchy would be slower... I'll give it a try and edit with the answer.

EDIT: I've tried playing around with both the depth of inheritance hierarchy (up to 20 levels), the point of "most derived overriding" and the declared variable type - and none of them seems to make a difference.

EDIT: I've just tried the original program using an interface (which is passed in) - that ends up having about the same performance as the delegate.